Less downtime and material loss thanks to automated fire suppression control in the drying tower.

The production of dry matter from dairy products places enormous demands on fire suppression control systems and the programming of suppression scenarios. In the case of our client, a renowned large dairy in eastern Germany, the lack of automation regularly led to false alarms in the fire suppression system and, consequently, to unnecessary activation of the system, which resulted in significant manual effort and the loss of dried product. As a result of the suppression process, wet product remains in the drying tower and must be removed manually. In addition, the drying tower is shut down abruptly when a certain temperature is exceeded, causing the temperature to spike.

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Less downtime thanks to the reorganization of the fire suppression system

Focus on process control:

The clear goal: to reduce fire suppression events triggered by false alarms and thereby prevent the drying tower from being shut down abruptly, except in the event of an actual fire.

Revision of the error handling behavior

Step by step toward a controlled fire extinguishing scenario

Analysis of the existing fire suppression control system programming

Analysis of behavior in the drying tower

Developing a new approach in collaboration with the client

Extensive testing in a virtual environment

Replacing the existing temperature sensors with dual-channel

Commissioning of all new and existing trigger scenarios

Comprehensive testing of all scenarios at all measurement points

Greater measurement accuracy thanks to state-of-the-art temperature sensors

New dual-channel measurement points and additional measurement inputs prevent temperature drifts and serve as a backup in the event of a sensor failure.

More system functions in fire suppression control

By analyzing and addressing the malfunction, the system’s functionality will be expanded to include new alerts and deletion scenarios as needed.

Close-up of an analog pressure gauge on laboratory equipment.

Controlled shutdown of the tower in an emergency

To prevent a hard shutdown of the drying tower and the resulting critical rise in temperature, the scenarios for the shutdown process were adjusted to include an emergency shutdown. At the same time, we incorporated new options to allow the batch to be completed even in the event of minor problems.

”In a very short time, we were able to commission the new fire suppression system, including all programming and test runs, with minimal downtime in the process.
Matthias WerodinProjektleiter

automation excellence

Greater efficiency while maintaining the same level of safety

Even though this is a new field of application for us, we were able to fully leverage our process expertise in the automation of temperature control systems and sensor technology for this project. Once again, it became clear that standard solutions fall far short, especially in such a sensitive area.

Comprehensive test runs

Validations due to missing or inconsistent documentation of the existing program.

Efficiency gains

Reducing false alarms and downtime while maintaining process safety.

Sensor technology expertise

A better overview of actual temperature conditions thanks to duplicate measurement points.

Well-thought-out backup

Increased safety through a controlled shutdown of the drying tower.

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Automated fire suppression control system at the dairy